A budget proposal released by the White House Tuesday seeks to increase federal workers’ pay and funding for government employee training programs in fiscal 2015, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.

Jack Moore writes the Obama administration also proposed new initiatives under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Federal Employees Compensation Act.

“There are tradeoffs that have to be made at flat (budget) levels, and we believe that our federal employees were something that deserved an increase,” Sylvia Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters at a budget briefing Tuesday.

“The 1 percent increase is what we felt we were able to do in the context of the budget constraints,” Burwell added, according to the station.

Moore writes the proposal allocates $56 billion for workforce hiring and development programs, divided equally between defense and nondefense agencies.

The federal budget plan also provides $165 million in funding for customer service operations at the Internal Revenue Service, Moore reports.

“With the loss of 10,000 employees and training cuts of 87 percent since 2010, it will take several years for the IRS to rebuild, but this is a good first step,” said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, according to the station.

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